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In the restaurants of Sharm el-Sheikh, kebabs and mezze are advertised in English and Cyrillic first, and Arabic second. A fountain next to King Abdallah Street is painted with Union Jacks and London Underground logos, while a sign points in the supposed direction of Moscow.

The Egyptian beach resort was packed with visitors from the Gulf enjoying the Eid al-Adha holiday last week – but there were only a handful of the Russians and Britons who once made up the bulk of travellers here.

All direct flights from the UK were suspended after a bomb on a Russian charter flight that had taken off from Sharm el-Sheikh airport killed all 224 people on board last October.

Simon Woodward, 40, an events manager from north London, spent last week in Sharm el-Sheikh with other British and European tourists.

“I felt safer in Sharm than I would in France right now”, he told Telegraph Travel after his stay at the Camel Dive Hotel in the Red Sea resort.

“If you are into snorkelling, diving, and lying on the beach, Sharm is the perfect destination for Britons, with guaranteed blue sky and sunshine.”

Security around the South Sinai resort was noticeably tight, with sniffer dogs and metal detectors searching every car on the road into the tourist area. Like other hotels, the entrance to the five-star Hyatt Regency was barricaded by a checkpoint and an airport-style X-ray machine.

Mr Woodward, who has visited Sharm el-Sheikh up to twice a year for the past seven years, was not put off by UK Foreign Office advice against using the town’s airport and arrived on an EgyptAir flight from London via Cairo.

Mr Woodward said airport security now felt “three times as tight” as on previous visits.

Tourists departing Sharm el-Sheikh must now go through three rounds of security checks and suitcases must be film-wrapped.

Ben Davies, a 42-year-old information manager from Brighton, also refused to be deterred.

“It offers some of the best diving in the world in warm waters or if you just want to soak up the sun, there are hotels that offer every level of comfort,” he said.

For those who do travel, lower tourist numbers have created better conditions for wildlife sightings. “There are now amazing encounters with rays, sharks and even whale sharks”, Mr Davies added.

More than 50 hotels have closed in Sharm since last year's bombing

Sharm el-Sheikh was once a thriving winter sun holiday destination, but 54 of its hotels have closed since the Russian plane crash. In August hotel occupancy reached 40 per cent thanks only to domestic tourists taking advantage of discounted rooms, according to local reports.